Re: Libel threat

Tomos wrote:
>Are non-Americans' rights covered by the US law? Either a british 
>Wikipedian's or Saddam Hussein's?
>I am quite unsure.

As far as I know, and according to the English Wikipedia general disclaimer, 
no. For example: looking at child porn on the Internet in the U.S. is a 
crime. Just because that porn is hosted in a country where it isn't a crime 
(or more likely not a crime that is prosecuted) does *not*  in any way 
protect any person in the U.S. viewing it. 

And as hard as it has tried, the U.S. cannot extend its laws into other 
countries (however, international agreements do try to iron out differences - 
but that requires each party nation to change their laws to an agreed upon 
standard). So if it is illegal to do something in your nation (such as write 
a factual NPOV article on one of your nation's political figures that 
mentions some misdeed), then you do so at your own risk. 

Just because it is perfectly legal to have an article on our server in the 
U.S., doesn't mean it was legal for you to write (or even view!) it in your 
own nation. However, if you are logged-in you are much better protected - I 
think I remember Jimbo stating that he would never give any such foreign 
government access logs showing your IP address. No reason why he should 
anyway - they have no legal authority over the Wikimedia Foundation or the 
database. 

Things get more complicated with a Wikimedia Europe affiliate. That is why it 
is very important to find which nation in the EU has the strongest civil 
liberty and privacy laws and then base the affiliate there.  

IANAL

-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)